Updated at 11:58 p.m.
BARRE — The Vermont Department of Health on Thursday confirmed the first known death related to this week’s historic flooding in the state.
Stephen Davoll, 63, of Barre City, died as a result of drowning in his home on Wednesday, Vermont Emergency Management said in a press release Thursday afternoon. The state’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and the Barre Police Department investigated the death, the agency said.
“You couldn’t ask for a better guy,” said Davoll’s sister-in-law, Barbara Pennell. Davoll lived with Pennell and his wife, Beverly Frost, near the end of Vine Street, a block away from a tributary of the Winooski River.
Pennell, sitting on the front porch late Thursday afternoon, said water in the basement from the flooding earlier this week led to the “freak accident” that killed Davoll.
“He kept going down and checking on it and checking on it,” she said. At one point, after not hearing from him, she and her sister went to check on him and found him with his upper body submerged in the water.
She said she was not exactly clear how long he had been in the water, though it could have been about two hours based on when they last saw him.
“It’s a shock, it’s a terrible shock,” Pennell said.
Heavy, sustained rainfall early this week flooded the state’s waterways and inundated many municipalities, including Barre City. According to Vermont Emergency Management, swiftwater rescue teams have conducted over 200 rescues and 100 evacuations this week, but until the state’s announcement on Thursday afternoon, no deaths had been tied to the storm.
Davoll had a daughter and three step-children, according to family members. “He just loved them all,” Pennell said.
She said the home — near the Stevens Branch of the Winooski River — usually doesn’t experience flooding. The flooding from the rains earlier this week were limited to the basement, she said, but everything in it is ruined.
Davoll worked as a delivery truck driver, Pennell said.
“He was a hard worker,” Pennell said of Davoll. “He had to work at 10 (in the morning) and he would never get home until 9 or 10 o’clock at night.”
He was also skilled at sandblasting, she said, and was always willing to help anybody out who needed that service.
“No matter if it was a hundred degrees out he’d go and put his suit on and go sandblasting.” Pennell said.
This week, she said, he had been on vacation from work.
“That guy would give his right arm to anybody,” Pennell added of Davoll. “He just loved and helped everybody else.”
